HARTFORD — In the aftermath of two more homicides in the capital city on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 11th and 12th so far this year, police are questioning whether putting more officers on the streets is the solution.

"The solution you always hear is more cops," Foley said. "That's been the solution for 50 years. When there's a spike in crime, you always throw more cops at it. When you do that, it's a very temporary, short-term solution to a problem."

Adding more officers, he said, "while it may create the feeling of safety, inevitably saturates our poorest, most challenged neighborhoods with police officers, which inevitably highlights them for more arrests, incarcerations and a negative law enforcement impact."

He ticked off a list of existing programs that he said work: community policing, other types of community outreach and Project Longevity, an intervention program reserved for the most violent criminals.

"We should consider anything that would help save a life, but we should not lose focus on what has brought us success over the last few years," he said.

The department's shooting team in the past has been praised as successful; city officials in January announced a drop in serious crimes in 2014 — including the lowest number of homicides in a decade. Project Longevity, a federal and state initiative aimed at curbing gun violence by targeting the most violent offenders and offering them assistance, has been incorporated into policing efforts in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport.

But the past two weeks have brought a steady diet of violence in Hartford. The latest victims were a 23-year-old who was shot multiple times late Tuesday on Maple Avenue in the city's South End, and a person who was fatally stabbed on Barbour Street on Wednesday night.

They were the fourth and fifth homicides in two weeks. There have been several nonfatal shootings during that time, including a spray of bullets into a barbershop, the wounding of a pastor who was putting small flags in the ground outside his church and, on Wednesday, the shooting of a man on New Park Avenue and Kane Street.

The fatal stabbing happened about 7 p.m. Wednesday near 139 Barbour St., at Blue's Package Store. The victim was not immediately identified, but a suspect was in custody, police said.

Tuesday night's fatal shooting happened outside Ciales Grocery at 616 Maple Ave., a worker said. The victim went into the store after being shot and collapsed on the floor about 11:15 p.m. The store closes at midnight, said the woman, who declined to give her name.

Initial reports indicated that the victim might have been involved in a dispute with someone. A section of the street was closed for hours overnight while police investigated. Police had left the scene by 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

After the police tape was taken down, there were only small signs of what had happened. Droplets of blood stained the sidewalk outside the business' front door. A narrow strip of glass in a display case was shattered. More blood was smeared on a box of potatoes.

One resident said that the neighborhood has a crime problem. "This is your typical drug-infested neighborhood," said the man, who didn't want his name published. "Over here, you owe money, you get shot."

Julio Rivera already knows about the neighborhood. He lost three relatives to gun violence — including his son earlier this year.

He went into the store Wednesday morning to make a purchase, standing on the spot where the 23-year-old fell.

His son, Julius Rivera, was the city's sixth homicide victim this year. The 20-year-old died after being shot on Benton Street on March 23, leaving behind a daughter, Julio Rivera said.

Rivera said he also lost two female cousins to gun violence in previous years, one on Maple Avenue and one in a double homicide on Whitmore Street. Both Benton and Whitmore intersect with Maple Avenue and are near the scene of Tuesday night's shooting.

"It's crazy," he said of the violence.

Hours before the Maple Avenue shooting, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., spoke at a packed community meeting at a church complex on Main Street, and called for a moment of silence "for those who have been victimized this weekend and those that are suffering, and have suffered, over the course of the first five months."

Murphy said the new federally designated Promise Zone in north Hartford could bring a host of community resources and investments to stifle the cycle of violence and bring prosperity to neighborhoods.

Former state Sen. Frank Barrows, standing in the audience, said he was "tired of promises."

"If you want to do something, you've got to get businesses into the city to hire people," Barrows said. "Come into the North End of Hartford and give our people some jobs. If we get jobs, there is no crime, because you're too busy working, making money."

A woman who lives near the Maple Avenue store said she noticed that there had been more crime in the past year. It doesn't help, she said, that ex-convicts with no money get dumped into halfway houses in the city.

"They send everybody from the prisons to the halfway houses, and they need to work for a living," said the mother of three, who would not give her name.